Bitcoin Wallet Goes Offline After DNS Attack

In a blow to the digital currency world, this week saw another attack against it, prompting one of the biggest online Bitcoin wallet providers, Blockchain.info to take its service office, thus denying millions of users access to their Bitcoin.

With a user base of around eight-million customers, Blockchain.info going down was a significant event as frustrated users took to social media sites like Reddit and Twitter to discuss among themselves exactly what was going on.

For users of Blockchain.info, it turned out to be a case of better-safe-than-sorry, and the inconvenience was limited only to a temporary lack of access. If hackers had actually got into people's wallets and were able to steal their Bitcoin, it would have been a lot more serious situation. Blockchain.info were vigilant in their handling of this issue and were able to get things back up and running within 24 hours of discovering the breach.

In a statement on their website, Blockchain.io said on Wednesday, "Earlier today, we discovered our DNS registrar had been compromised. We took immediate action to resolve the issue. To be abundantly cautious, we're waiting for the DNS to propagate universally across the web before bringing our services back. Once DNS has propagated, we expect to restore services ASAP. Our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience."

Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain.io, went further in a personal statement, explaining that although the company doesn't like to go offline, when they do, it's only for the best security reasons.